There Are 3 Types Of Predictive "Prophecy" That Can
Come True SometimesThere Is Only 1
Type Of Predictive Prophecy That Comes True All The Time!

by Sandy
Simpson

Prophecy is a broad term.
In the Bible it is often defined as preaching, teaching, exhorting, etc.
Prophecy in modern times has come to mean almost exclusively the prediction of
future events. But this is only one aspect of prophecy as defined in the
Word. Mike Oppenheimer in his article called "Apostles & Prophets Today" gives this apt definition of a biblical prophet:

The Old
Testament prophets taught the basic truths and principles of God, and the facts
and nuances of man's relationship with Him. They condemned sin, they brought
comfort to the remnant, and conviction to those who sinned. They were invariably
persecuted by the target portion of Israel, and most importantly, they spoke of
things to come both near and far into the future Deuteronomy 18:15 -19 tells us
of the nature of a true prophet.

Predictive prophecy, then, is
only one aspect of prophetic ministry and is defined as a prediction of present,
near future and distant future events where there is nothing known definitely
about that event or even that it would occur (except by God, which we will cover
later.) It is also NOT predicting something that is known to be planned in
the future. That is simply prediction, not prophecy. Many false
prophets today make predictions they falsely call "prophecies" based on events
they are planning to carry out in order to fulfill their "prophecies" and
thereby gain followers to themselves. This is not true predictive prophecy,
given by the Lord, that is about an unknown event or occurrence at a future
time.

Let's start with a known
premise. Anyone can predict the future to a small degree. Mediums,
psychics, fortunetellers, witches, business prognosticators, stock market
analysts, Christian "prophets" and even you and I. Anyone can hit by luck
on predicting a future event based on a number of factors such as intuition, a
careful study of trends, etc. So there are three types of predictive
"prophecy". Notice I put "prophecy" in quotes as we will define what true
prophecy is as compared to what we are describing here.

Type 1 - Predictions made based on human intuition and analysis of
facts.

It is possible to get
predictions right a certain percentage of the time based on good information
about the world around us and calculated guesses based on those facts. The
more informed you are, the more education you have, and the stronger you are in
applying deductive reasoning--the better your predictions will be. This
method produces results that are varied, but generally a very small percentage
of predictions made by information and intuition alone will come to pass.
Psychics usually fall into the category of Type 1 and sometimes Type 2.
Here is a study that was done on psychics to show you just how low a percentage
of accuracy they have.

At
the beginning of 1978, Ralph Blodgett decided it was time to settle this
matter of “psychics.” So he did what other people had generally only thought
of doing. He went from one magazine vending counter to another, buying up the
first-of-the-year sensational and gossip tabloids. Then he took his loot home
and carefully compiled a list of 250 definite predictions for the year
1978.

As the year
passed, he kept close tab on the news stories as they broke—in the newspapers,
as well as the major news, science, gossip and sports magazines—and kept
watching for fulfillments of those 250 predictions.

Then he sat
down at the end of the year and put it all together. Out of 250 specific
prognostications, by the thirty leading psychics of the world, less than 3
percent (i.e., 6 out of 250) could be listed as reasonably fulfilled.
Ninety-seven percent missed the mark entirely. (The six correct ones had been
stated in such general terms that it was not difficult to find someone or
someplace that could fulfill them.)

“What kind of predictions
are we talking about? Here are a few for 1978 that flopped: U.S. space shuttle
disaster sets program back 10 years; another major power failure to hit New
York City in early 1978; a fire ravages the White House; the price of gas to
reach $1.50 a gallon in U.S.; Quebec to split from rest of Canada; Carter to
impose mandatory nationwide four-day work week in January; Cuba to apply to
become fifty-first state; nationwide postal strike to halt all Christmas mail;
Carter to reintroduce the draft in September; discovery of a cancer cure; Red
China and the Soviet Union to go to war; CIA and FBI merge into a super spy
agency; and remains of Atlantis discovered in Mediterranean off Turkey.”—Ralph
Blodgett, “Supermarket Psychics Spin the Roulette Wheel Again,” These Times,
March, 1979.

False prophets in the New
Apostolic Reformation, on TBN and everywhere else in the media today fall into
Type 1 and Type 2 also. The accuracy of their predictions is just as low as that
of psychics. Look at some of the predictions that head "apostle" C. Peter
Wagner wrote in his book in 1993.

10
million Japanese will come to Christ by the year 2000; it helped to bring down
the Berlin Wall and opened Albania to the gospel; it deposed dictator Manuel
Noriega; it lowered the crime rate in Los Angeles and broke the power of
demons over Japan (C. Peter Wagner, Breaking Strongholds in Your City, 1993,
p.25

Wagner was talking about the
spiritual warfare techniques the New Apostolic Reformation uses, predicting what
they would achieve. But NONE of the predictions he made based on the words of
his "prophets" in the paragraph above that are highlighted came true. The
other two Wagner clearly had no evidence to prove. His false spiritual warfare
techniques like binding Satan, prayer walking, casting down territorial spirits,
driving stakes around cities, spraying holy water all over the place, and other
ridiculous occutlic techniques had nothing to do with the events he mentioned.

Benny Hinn has made a multitude
of false predictive prophecies. Here is just a sampling:

"The Spirit
tells me - Fidel Castro will die - in the 90's. Oooh my! Some will try to kill
him and they will not succeed. But there will come a change in his physical
health, and he will not stay in power, and Cuba will be visited of God."
(Benny Hinn, Orlando Christian Center, Dec. 31st, 1989
http://op.50megs.com/ditc/BENNY-HINN-ON-CASTRO-DYING.ram)

"The Lord also
tells me to tell you in the mid 90's, about '94-'95, no later than that, God
will destroy the homosexual community of America. [audience applauds] But He
will not destroy it - with what many minds have thought Him to be, He will
destroy it with fire. And many will turn and be saved, and many will rebel and
be destroyed." (Benny Hinn, Orlando Christian Center, Dec. 31st,
1989.http://op.50megs.com/ditc/BENNY-HINN-HOMOSEXUALS.ram)

"The hour is
urgent. Many of you have known me for many years. But I am telling you right
now, things I haven't said years 'n years 'n years ago. I believe - here this,
hear this! I believe, that Jesus, God's Son, is about to appear physically, in
meetings and to believers around the world, to wake us up! He appeared after His
resurrection and He is about to appear before His second coming! You know a
prophetess sent me a word through my wife, right here, and she said 'Tell your
husband that Jesus is go'n to physically appear in his meetings.' I am expecting
to see, I am telling you that - I feel it's going to happen. I, I, I'm, I'm
careful in how I am saying it now, because I know the people in Kenya are
listening. I know deep in my soul, something supernatural is going to happen in
Nai - in Nairobi Kenya. I feel that. I may very well come back, and you and Jan
are coming, to - Paul and Jan are coming to Nairobi with me, but Paul, we may
very well come back with footage of Jesus on the platform! You know that the
Lord appeared in Romania recently, and there's a video of it? Where the Lord
appeared in the back of a church and you see him on video walking down the isle?
Yeah! Paul do you remember when I came on TBN years ago and showed you a clip of
the Lord appearing in our church in Orlando, on the balcony on the wall? Yeah.
You, you remember that? [Paul Crouch] Very well, I saw it! [Benny Hinn] That was
'80, 80 something, '86, what - whatever. You know I always wondered why the
Lord, why did He do that? Do you know why, now I look back? That was the
beginning of the greatest move of God in our church. Because '83, '84, and '85
were horrible years for me, horrible years. Eighty-six the blessings of God
began, but they began with a - with this manifestation of the Lord's face on, on
the balcony, that stayed for eight weeks. Eight solid weeks! The Lord has done
this in the past, but He is about to do it again, now hear this, I am
prophesying this! Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is about to appear physically in
some churches, and some meetings, and to many of His people, for one reason - to
tell you He is about to show up! To Wake Up! Jesus is coming saints! You have
held back from the Lord in the past, don't you dare do it now. The day will come
you'll stand before Him and give an answer. How dare we not give to God. How
dare we hold back." (Benny Hinn, TBN Praise-a-thon, April 2nd, 2000
http://op.50megs.com/benny-hinn.wav)

Hinn based his first two
predictions on things he had obviously heard in the news. The last one he
based on the word of another false prophet, Ruth Heflin, now deceased. I'm
sure she now knows the error of her ways, but Benny is still making false
prophecies daily on his TV program.

These are just two examples of
many I could give. For false prophecies by heretics who call themselves
prophets today, look under the names we expose on our pages at DITC. You
will discover that there are many Type 1 "prophets" out there who are making up
things from their own imaginations. The Bible tells us the M.O. (modus
operandi) of false prophets.

Jeremiah 14:14 Then the LORD said to me, "The
prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed
them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions,
divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own
minds.

Type 2 - Demonic prediction.

The enemy also predicts. He
puts thoughts and ideas into the minds of people regarding future events.
Note the message Peter spoke by the prompting of Satan in his mind.

Matt.
16:21-23 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that
he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders,
chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the
third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
"Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" Jesus turned and
said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you
do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of
men."

Since the devil and his
angels have been around since before the fall of man, they have the added
advantage of a historical point of view. They can listen in on private
conversations and plans. They can be in many places around the world
because of their numbers and relay that information to individuals who are open
to their leading. I believe that many Third Wave false prophets, having
opened themselves up to demonic influence because of their disobedience to the
Word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit by getting slain in the spirit,
are open to suggestion from the enemy in their predictions. Type 2
predictions of the enemy are much more accurate than Type 1. But the fact
that the enemy is neither omniscient nor omnipresent leaves him open to
predictive error. This is why we are to test the spirits, test prophecies,
test everything.

1
John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits
to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out
into the world.1 Corinthians 14:29 Two or three prophets
should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said.1
Thessalonians 5:21 Test everything. Hold on to the
good.

A true prophet
of God does not make mistakes. If he is hearing from God, and every
prophecy of God comes true because God is truth, then we can easily test to see
which category a prediction falls under. True prophets are 100% correct
because they don not lie when they say they have heard from God when they are
not.

Duet.
13:1-3 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you
and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of
which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods
you have not known) "and let us worship them," you must not listen to the
words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out
whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.Deut. 18:20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name
anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name
of other gods, must be put to
death."

Type 3 - True prophetic word from God.

A true predictive prophecy from
God will also come true. But there is a difference. ALL
prophecies of God come to pass. I am not talking about conditional
prophecies here, though they also come to pass in one of two ways as God has
spoken. I am addressing straight ahead predictive prophecies. Every
single prophecy of God has or will come true, so any prophet of God will be 100%
correct all the time. There is no error with God because He is the Spirit
of Truth. Therefore there is no error with human prophets if they truly
hear from God. If they do not know FOR CERTAIN they have heard from God,
they need to keep their mouths SHUT! If they make a prediction and claim
they got that prediction from God and it fails, then they are liars and must be
considered to be false prophets according to the Word of God. If they
refuse to repent of false prophecies they have made in the name of the Lord,
they are to be rejected, marked, and avoided. There is no "learning curve"
for prophets of the Lord because there is nothing to learn regarding predictive
prophecy. They have either heard the voice of God directly, or they have
not. They are either truthful having the Spirit of truth, or they are
liars of their father the devil.

John
8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out
your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the
truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native
language, for he is a liar and the father of
lies.

A false prophet is named as
such because he is a liar.

Micah
2:11 If a liar and deceiver comes and says, ’I will prophesy for you
plenty of wine and beer,’ he would be just the prophet for this
people!

It is interesting that people
love to hear the prophecies of false prophets because they prophesy the things
people want to hear.

Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy lies, the
priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what
will you do in the end?2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come
when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own
desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what
their itching ears want to hear.

Those who prophesy falsely
have abandoned the Faith (if they ever were a part of it to begin with) and
follow deceiving spirits. They have no conscience about lying and telling
people they have heard from God when they have not.

1
Tim. 4:1-2 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon
the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such
teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared
as with a hot iron.

False prophets are liars,
thus they are destined to hell unless they repent. You cannot lie in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ and expect to not suffer judgment. Notice what the
Bible lists last in a list of sins that will send people to hell, professing
Christians or no.

Revelation
21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the
sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—
their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second
death."